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21 November 2024, 10:26 | Updated: 21 November 2024, 18:44
Where is Maura Higgins from? And is she dating Pete Wicks? Here's everything we need to know as she swaps her glam life for the I'm A Celebrity jungle.
Love Island producers certainly decided to shake things up when they added Irish ring girl Maura Higgins into the villa line-up in 2019. After initial uncertainty viewers were eventually won over by the Irish beauty's brutal honesty.
Now, five years on she's cemented herself as a household name thanks to her own make-up line, appearing on Dancing on Ice, hosting duties on Love Island USA and Love Island: Games and is now heading for the I'm A Celebrity jungle alongside fellow later comer Rev Richard Coles.
And when it's not her TV work that's got everyone talking, the Irish bombshell finds herself in the news as people obsess over her rumoured new romance with TOWIE 'bad boy' Pete Wicks.
So incase you don't know everything already, here are some facts about Maura including her age, where she is from and what she's said about surgery rumours.
Maura is 33 years old, soon turning 34. She was first in the spotlight at 28 when she joined Love Island as a bombshell in 2019.
Maura is best known for her Love Island stint where she came fourth with now-ex boyfriend Curtis Pritchard. She worked as a model and Grid Girl before finding fame on Love Island.
Now Maura is a celebrity in her own right after many presenting and hosting gigs, as well as delving into the world of acting with the film The Spin.
Photos of Maura years before she entered Love Island emerged when she entered the villa, sparking rumours she’s had surgery to alter her appearance.
However, the reality TV star’s mother leapt to her defence insisting Maura hasn’t gone under the knife and has simply had lip fillers which she’s been honest about in a previous Instagram post.
Maura’s mum said at the time: “She’s 28 now. She has matured. She never got plastic surgery ever. The only thing she ever got done – and she never hid it, she had it up on her own Instagram – was she got some lip filler.
"Because she had quite thin lips. And that was the height of it. So that’s the only thing. She never had plastic surgery ever. That’s terrible stuff."
She also revealed on Instagram she has hair extensions, and her long brunette locks look amazing as a result.
Tom was very much put in his place by Maura after making THAT comment...
Maura is rumoured to be dating Pete Wicks and while they've given a fair few hints that it's true nothing serious between them has been confirmed.
However, talking on Married at First Sight expert Paul C Brunson's podcast 'We Need to Talk' Maura revealed she 'adores' Pete. "We met very soon after me coming off the show [Love Island] and we just instantly clicked," Maura began.
"Our humour is the same. It's like that sick, dark humour. It's very abusive. We abuse each other. Very nasty, it's hilarious.
"We just get on very very well, very very well, I adore him. He's amazing."
Maura split from Curtis Pritchard within months of them leaving Love Island together and later went on to date fellow Love Island star Chris Taylor.
Maura and Chris decided they worked better as friends and called things off in May 2021.
At the start of 2024, Maura soft launched her relationship with stuntman Bobby Holland Hanton who’s worked on some huge Hollywood films. However in March it was revealed by a tabloid source that their relationship was over.
They said: "It was really fun for a while but they're different people. It's over between them."
Maura was on one of the most iconic Love Island seasons to date appearing on the show in 2019 for the fifth series.
That year saw Amber Gill come first with Greg O'Shea and Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury come second as that year's runners up.
It's obvious that Maura's strong Irish accent catches everyone's attention when she's speaking. She's from Longford in Ireland, but now she lives in Essex.
In an Instagram Q&A she said she moved there when she was training for Dancing On Ice and just "never moved out".
You can find Maura @maurahiggins on Insta where she has 3.8 million followers.